school admissions criteria Sept 2020 (reception)

[Samanta80]

Good Afternoon.

I was wondering if anyone could help me.

I am preparing the schools application for September 2020 and are quite anxious about the chances of us getting into our first choice.

My family and I have only been renting in the area since August 2019. Our previous property, where we lived in for 11 months, is currently for sale since July 2019. We tried to purchase a property in our current area but cant afford to until our previous property is sold. The local council is telling me that our current address would be deemed as an address of convenience. They told me I should be applying to a school near to where we used to live. But we do not want to live in this area, the current area we are in is safer, and it is convenient to all of us. One of our children goes to a local nursery which we are really happy with. By September we would have lived longer in our current address than in our previous address

How can this be if we have our heart set on this area and have decided to take out a tenancy agreement of 3 years?

Any advice would be of great help.

Kind Regards
Pablo

The fact that you have another house is the reason that the LA are taking a tough line with you. Whilst your reasons might be perfectly reasonable, the reality is that so many people have rented short term to get into a favourable catchment that the LA does take a hard line with these kinds of situations.
Given you have had a conversation already with the LA about this and they have said in their opinion you are using an address of convenience it will have been flagged on their IT system. So using the new address will almost certainly lead to the LA removing it and using your old address.
You have also left it very late to try and convince the LA that your new address is your long term address with a 3 year rental agreement. I would ask the LA again and get them to confirm in writing that they are insisting that you must use the old address even though you have taken out a 3 year rent on new property.
You only have to Wednesday to place your preferences, so my suggestion is that you put down as first preference the school you want to go to near the new address - you can apply for any school from anywhere in the country but the admission criteria will be based on distance from school to home address. Then if you have three preferences the third preference is a local school near to where you used to live because you will have to use the old address unless you can convince the LA the new one is correct. The second preference I would also put as a school near the old address but you may want to consider another school near your new address.
If you get an allocation near to the old address, accept it so you do have a school for September then appeal for the schools near your new address citing the reason being that you believe the LA were being unreasonable about the address you had to use. But for the appeal you will need written confirmation of the LA saying the old address has to be used and you being able to confirm residency in your new rental address since August 2019 as an absolute minimum

How far apart are the 2 addresses?

2 miles away which may not sound like much but we live in London and its two different Borough’s. I called the admissions office today and they advised me to apply for schools at the property we own. Why would I do that if we are not going back to that address?

I have finally had a reply from one of the local Councillors and they said the following;

Quote
It does seem absurd to me that you’ve been categorised unhelpfully. Everyone knows how hard it has been to sell properties during the Brexit limbo.
Unquote

I’m not sure how much they can help but I will try very hard to make the admissions office understand that it is not an address of convenience.

To the first person that replied, sorry but I cannot see your username. Thank you for your help. On email they did not say no, they only told me that my case would be reviewed when all applications are processed on a case by case basis. I did contact our local MP back in October and kept on chasing for a reply until I finally received an email today saying my case had been logged.

Why have you taken a 3 year tenancy if the place you bought is on the market and you want to buy in the new area? I’d find that dodgy if I was the council.

Have you moved to be in the catchment of a very desirable school? Is that why the council is being strict?

Because we liked the property we are renting so much that we felt that a 3 year contract wasn't a huge commitment, and that buying could wait until a future date. Id have thought renting on a short term lease would look more dodgy, but I see what you mean.
Regardless of it being a desirable school, the criteria applies to all schools in the council. I have not mentioned to them what school I was applying for.